


Fate and Attraction

by trishabooms



Category: Dark Angel, SpnRPS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-20
Updated: 2008-08-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 11:48:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trishabooms/pseuds/trishabooms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Massive thanks to <a href="http://kazlynh.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://kazlynh.livejournal.com/"><b>kazlynh</b></a> for stopping my endless rewriting and tinkering, and to <a href="http://tabaqui.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://tabaqui.livejournal.com/"><b>tabaqui</b></a>, for putting me in touch with the wonderful <a href="http://darkhavens.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://darkhavens.livejournal.com/"><b>darkhavens</b></a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Fate and Attraction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novascotiasam](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=novascotiasam).



> Massive thanks to [](http://kazlynh.livejournal.com/profile)[**kazlynh**](http://kazlynh.livejournal.com/) for stopping my endless rewriting and tinkering, and to [](http://tabaqui.livejournal.com/profile)[**tabaqui**](http://tabaqui.livejournal.com/), for putting me in touch with the wonderful [](http://darkhavens.livejournal.com/profile)[**darkhavens**](http://darkhavens.livejournal.com/).

  
It all began the night Max dragged him over to Logan Cale's apartment, something about them providing blood samples for some genius doctor friend of his. Alec hadn’t really been listening, he’d long since learned to tune out at least half of what Max told him, just picking out the relevant parts. It involved the genetic virus Max carried that was specifically targeted at Logan's DNA, transgenic blood, and it was urgent, vital, all of which was nothing new where Max was concerned. He’d gone along with it, like he always did, because, despite everything, Max was the closest he'd ever get to having a sister and he knew that, bitching aside, she’d help him if ever he needed it, had helped him more than once. Plus, if they could actually cure Logan of the damn virus, so that he and Max could finally touch and do the dirty, maybe she'd ease up a little, be less of a pain in Alec's ass. Of course, he complained about having to do it all the way over there. She expected it of him and, hell, irritating Max was as much fun as it was easy.

He lost his ability to tease her from almost the moment he entered Logan’s apartment. He pretty much lost the power of speech entirely. He didn’t know why it happened but he could later pinpoint the time to within five seconds of him first laying eyes on Logan's friend, one Dr Jared Padalecki.

He didn't look the type to be a friend of Logan's, didn't look like any doctor or medic Alec had ever seen, but there he was, carefully drawing vials of blood from Max's extended arm. The guy had hair as long as Sketchy's, maybe even longer. Dark brown, soft-looking hair. The jeans he wore hung low off his hips, and the black T-shirt clung across his broad shoulders, its long sleeves pushed back from his large long-fingered hands. He was tall too, at least as big as Joshua, the dog boy.

Alec had barely said a word since entering the apartment and he didn't know why, it wasn't in his nature to keep quiet unless he had to. He knew he was behaving oddly but he just couldn't help it. He felt a little strange, kind of lightheaded, and there was this peculiar fluttery sensation that started in his belly and ran... Well, best try and ignore where it was running to. It wasn't right, he knew that. Had he still been at Manticore, he was pretty sure he would have gone to see a medic.

His assumption that there must be something wrong with him only increased when Max vacated her seat on Logan's leather couch and this Jared looked up at him, giving him a warm smile.

“Do you want to sit down now, Alec?” he invited.

Right at that moment Alec felt his heart speed up and his breaths become shorter as he took off his jacket and took the offered seat on the couch opposite the young doctor, who was perched on Logan's coffee table. He rolled up his sleeve without being asked.

“It won't hurt.” Padalecki's voice was soft and reassuring as he tightened the band around his arm and searched for a vein.

Alec wanted to tell him that he knew that, that giving blood samples had been pretty much a daily occurrence at Manticore. He wanted to say that a little thing like a hypodermic needle didn't bother a genetically engineered, highly trained, transgenic soldier. He opened his mouth to do just that but nothing came out; he just gave a quick nod before looking back down at his arm.

Padalecki's touch felt warm on his skin, even through the surgical gloves. The large hands were gentle and capable as they held his arm still and smoothly sank the needle into his vein.

“Are you okay?” His voice was gentle too, deep but soft.

Alec looked up slowly, knew he had to answer this time if he didn't want to look like a complete idiot, but he faltered when his eyes met the compelling brown ones that were fixed on his.

“F-fine.”

“This won't take long, I promise.”

Alec didn't know if he felt relieved or disappointed when the concerned gaze left his to concentrate on drawing his blood.

It _didn't_ take long, hardly any time at all in fact, and Alec couldn't help thinking that it ought to have taken longer, had to bite down on his urge to ask Padalecki if he had really taken enough. Instead, it was over and he looked up to see Logan smiling at him with a look in his eyes that said he knew something Alec didn't. Max barely gave him time to put on his jacket before she was dragging him out of there and ragging on him, the moment they got out the door, for acting weird.

She was right, he had acted weird and he couldn't explain why, even to himself. He thought about it a lot over the next couple of days, rewinding the events in his mind with perfect recall, over and over, but it didn't help.

He found himself wanting to see Jared Padalecki again. He was sure if he did he'd somehow be able to understand why he'd felt so odd that night, why he'd continued to feel strange afterwards. His body wasn't behaving the way it was conditioned to behave. Maybe Padalecki could help him with that, the man was a doctor after all.

Alec got his wish three days later in _Crash_. He was playing pool with Sketchy and just happened to glance up whilst sizing up his shot to see Padalecki watching him, his small smile broadening as they made eye contact. Alec missed the eight ball by a mile as the white found its way into the centre pocket, accompanied by Sketchy's whoops of glee.

Alec didn't give a damn, he abandoned his cue and the cash he'd won on the last couple of games in his sudden, unexplainable haste to get closer to the source of that smile.

It was Logan who greeted him, the same odd smile on his face that Alec had noticed the other day. “Hey, Alec. Want a beer?” he asked, holding up a pitcher.

Alec nodded, pleased in a way for the distraction that forced him to control his breathing so he could at least get a word out.

“Sure,” was all he managed.

“You remember Jared?” Logan asked him, which seemed an odd thing to say, how could he forget someone he had met three days earlier? At Manticore, Alec had excelled at common verbal usage, but, even so, there were times here on the outside when he felt lost.

He nodded, looking up at the man in question, his heart choosing just that moment to try and pound its way out of his chest. “I remember.”

“Hey, Alec.” Padalecki... _Jared's_ smile broadened, and Alec felt the gentle scrutiny of those slanting brown eyes as a wave of heat burst over him.

“Hi, uh.. Jared.” He stared at the other man who was looking at him expectantly. “H-how's the uh blood thing coming?” Now Alec was really warm, he could feel the flush of heated embarrassment as it crept up his cheeks. Forget common verbal usage, he could barely string a simple sentence together. What the hell was wrong with him?

Padalecki's smile never wavered and that warm, dark gaze seemed to soften even more. “The progress is slow but it's coming along.”

“So you... You'll be hanging around for a while?” Alec thought he heard Logan smother what sounded a little like a giggle behind his hand, but before he could investigate, Jared gave him a slow nod.

“Yeah, I'm gonna be in town for a while.”

“So that's _good_.” Alec smiled, for some reason liking that idea, but then his mind registered exactly what he'd said. “N-not _good_ that it's slow progress,” he added hastily. “But good... I mean, you're Logan's friend and you'll be seeing him... Longer!” His attempt to get the sentence out made Alec feel as though he'd done a fifty mile run up a mountain wearing a full pack; his heart was beating even faster and he could feel the sweat break out on his forehead.

“Staying around for a while will be good,” Jared agreed. “Seeing Logan, having the opportunity to get better acquainted with everyone.” Jared's eyes left Alec's to focus on a spot somewhere over his right shoulder, that smile of his reappearing.

“Hey, doc, how you doin'?”

Original-Cindy's voice startled Alec. How the hell had that happened? He was supposed to have heightened senses that prevented anyone from sneaking up on him. He was grateful when Logan picked that exact moment to hand him a glass of beer.

“Thanks.” He took a long drink. “Is it just me or is it kind of warm in here tonight?”

“You feelin' kinda flushed, sugar?” Cindy asked him. “You sure look it.”

“Yeah, it's weird,” he admitted.

She patted him on the shoulder and smiled, her eyes flashing to Jared before they came back to rest on him. “I guess it must be. Tell you what, why don't you and me go over to the bar and you can buy us another pitcher of beer?”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “You want _me_ to buy the beer?”

“Boy, for a smart Alec you sure can be dumb.” She grabbed his arm. “Now come and do like I said.”

“But...”

“Ain't open for debate.”

She might be just an ordinary, but Original-Cindy wasn't someone it was wise to get on the wrong side of; the woman had a short temper and a caustic tongue.

“So, do you want to tell me what's going on with you?” she asked him as they stood at the bar.

“Going on? Nothing's going on,” he protested.

“Don't take a genius to see you're acting all weird, even for you.”

Alec sighed, deciding to come clean. “Truth is, I'm feeling kinda weird, have been for a couple of days, and I... I don't know what it is. I'm hot, I'm restless, half the time I can barely string a sentence together. What the hell's wrong with me?”

“Maybe you're coming down with something?” she suggested.

“I'm a transgenic, I don't just come down with things.”

“You sure?” She cocked an elegant eyebrow. “Maybe it's somethin' you jes don't know about yet.”

 _Was_ he sure? Even Manticore wasn't perfect, as was proven by his and every other X5's reliance on tryptophan.

“Why don't you talk to that Jared guy?” Cindy suggested. “He's a doctor, right? All kinds of brilliant if you listen to Logan. Maybe he could help?”

The idea made Alec feel kinda panicky. “I don't know. I...”

“It can't hurt, can it?” Before he could form a reply she grabbed up the offered beer from the bartender. “You wait here, let Original-Cindy have a word in his ear, see if he can help you out.”

Alec swallowed nervously. “Maybe we shouldn't bother him, he _is_ kinda busy.”

“It don't hurt to ask, honey, he can only say no.”

Alec was sat at the bar, nursing his beer, when Jared came up beside him, folding his long frame onto a bar stool.

“Original-Cindy tells me you've been feeling kinda strange.” The man focused that gentle eyed gaze on him. “Maybe I can help.”

Alec shrugged. “I don't know what's wrong. I've been feeling weird. Cindy thinks maybe I'm coming down with something, but I shouldn't get sick.”

“True, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't. Why don't you tell me how you've been feeling?”

He could do that. “I-I'm kind of hot.”

“Yeah.” Jared's smile appeared, broad and dimpled. “I'd noticed.”

“It's like,” Alec continued, “I can't concentrate and I... I took common verbal usage at Manticore, I was good at it,” he assured Jared. “But just lately I... It's like I can't get my tongue around simple words.”

Jared nodded seriously. “Anything else?”

“Earlier, my heart was racing, it felt as though it was going to pound right out of my chest. I broke out in a sweat. That's not normal for me, none of this is.”

Jared nodded, his expression sympathetic maybe even a little sad. “I think I know what might be wrong, and if I'm right then its nothing to worry about, I promise.”

“Yeah?” Alec dredged up a hopeful smile but it was half-hearted at best.

“I think we need to be somewhere a little more private.” Jared placed a large, warm hand on his shoulder. “Just give me a minute to speak to Logan and I'll be right back. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He came back fairly quickly and dangled a set of car keys in front of Alec.

“The keys to Bessie,” he announced. “We'll go back to Logan's place, he's meeting Max here later so he'll get a ride home with her.”

Alec was quiet on the drive to Logan's apartment, the one word answers he was giving to questions drawing concerned looks from Jared. He was distracted, finding it difficult to concentrate on anything other than Jared's large, long fingered hands on the steering wheel. He just couldn't stop staring at them as he tried not to squirm in his seat.

The squirming was part of another little problem, one he hadn't mentioned to Jared yet. He'd been achingly hard, on and off, for days. Even for a transgenic, Alec was aware that he had an unusually healthy appetite for the opposite sex. He'd put it down to a more than generous helping of cat DNA in his particular genetic cocktail. Not that it was something he usually complained about, quite the contrary, he liked women and they liked him. The trouble was, there hadn't been any women around. Well, there _had_ been women, there were always women, but no one had particularly caught his eye. Still, he kept finding himself embarrassingly hard. He'd been forced to beat off under endless cold showers. He'd thought about Jared each time, about telling him about his problem, maybe asking him if it were possible for him to _somehow_ be on heat the way Max was.

“Could I be on heat?” he blurted out, never intending to give voice to what was going on in his head.

The car gave a sudden swerve, almost hitting a truck in the opposite lane.

“ _What_?” Jared asked him, once the car was back under control.

“I-I have cat DNA in my cocktail, could they have messed up somehow?”

Jared's eyes were wide. “You, you mean... You think you're in season?”

He shook his head. “I-I don't know,” he confessed. “But something's not right, down there.”

“We erm, we're almost at the apartment,” Jared told him, glancing over as he ran his fingers nervously through his long, dark hair. “Let's wait, talk about it when we get there, okay?”

“You're the doctor.”

Jared nodded. “I am, aren't I?”

When they arrived at Logan's apartment, Alec found himself seated on the couch once more waiting for Jared, who came to join him carrying two wine glasses and an opened bottle of red wine.

“I thought we should relax a little while we talk. I know alcohol doesn't affect you directly, but I thought a drink between friends might make us both feel more at ease.” He held the two long-stemmed glasses in one hand as he poured them both a drink.

“You have really big hands.”

What the hell was going on with him? One minute he could barely string a sentence together, the next he's blurting out every random thought that comes into his head.

Jared just laughed, grinning broadly as he handed Alec his drink. “I'm a big guy, I'd look kinda strange with small hands.”

“I guess.” He looked away. “I'm sorry. I-I don't know what the hell I'm saying.”

“Do I make you nervous?”

Did he? Alec wasn't sure. “I, uh...” He studied the contents of his glass as though the dark red wine held all the answers.

“It's okay, Alec.” One of those big hands patted him softly on the knee. “You can say whatever you like to me, it's fine.”

There was a long period of silence before Alec realised that had been his cue to talk. He gulped down half of his wine as he considered his options.

“So,” he began, looking back up at Jared. “How long have you known Logan?” He wondered if he could actually have said anything more lame.

“All my life, our families have been friends for years.”

“So, you're rich too, huh?”

Jared nodded, his smile disarming. “Disgustingly.”

“And a genius, according to Max.”

He looked a little embarrassed. “I have a high IQ, but then so do you, right?”

“All the X5 series do. They figured it would make us better soldiers, if they put it together with the right conditioning.”

“Do you think they were right?”

Alec shrugged. “Some of us were flawed.” So terribly flawed.

Jared's frown was deep. “Is that what you think you are Alec, flawed?”

“There's _something_ wrong with me.”

“Are we still talking about how you've been feeling over the last few days?”

 _Were_ they?

“What else would we be talking about?” The words came out a little more sharply than he'd intended and he found himself starting to stammer out another apology until Jared gently but firmly cut him off.

“Alec, you don't have to keep apologising, just try and relax.”

“I don't seem too good at that lately.”

“Well you're looking a little better than you did earlier, less flushed. Do you still feel hot?”

“Not so much,” he realised.

Jared stretched out a hand towards his forehead. “Can I?”

“Sure.” The feel of that large hand was warm and oddly reassuring. Alex closed his eyes, barely resisting the urge to lean into the touch.

“You run a little hotter than ordinary humans.”

He forced his eyes open. “We have a more efficient metabolism.”

“Faster heart rate,” Jared nodded, moving his hand away from Alec's forehead only to touch two of those long fingers to his carotid pulse.

The touch startled Alec, sending a tingle of energy coursing through his body straight to his already aching cock.

“ _Easy_.” Jared put down his wine, freeing his other hand to stroke gently over Alec's shoulder before taking his half drained glass from him and putting it down.

“What the fuck is wrong with me? Back at _Crash_ you said you thought you knew.”

Jared nodded, his fingers leaving Alec's pulse and squeezing his arm before letting him go. “I think I do, but I need to ask you a few questions first, and you need to give me honest answers, okay?”

Alec nodded. “I can do that.”

“Let's work this through then: You've been feeling strange, hot sweats, pounding heart and occasional shortness of breath. You're having trouble concentrating and nothing you say seems to be coming out right. Do we agree so far?”

“Yeah.”

“And you think you might be in heat, why is that?”

“I keep getting hard.”

Jared raised an eyebrow. “And you don't normally?”

“I do, I-I like women. I like having sex. We didn't do that at Manticore, have sex. Never got the urge to back then either, I guess they used drugs to suppress that kinda thing, huh? That all changed when they lost the DNA database and they introduced the breeding programme. I still didn't get any though cuz they paired me up with good old Max as a breeding partner, which meant the pope probably had more chance of having sex than I did. But once we were free from there...”

“You had lots of sex.” Jared grinned.

Alec nodded.

“So what's different about getting hard now? Jared wanted to know.

“It's happening when there are no women around, when I'm not even thinking about them.”

Jared nodded. “And how long has this been happening?”

“Just over the last few days.”

“Since when _exactly_ , do you remember?”

Alec thought about it. “Since that night Max and I came over here and you took the blood samples.” Maybe that was it, maybe he caught something then, if that were possible.

“That's interesting,” Jared told him. “Is that when everything started; the distraction, feeling hot, shortness of breath?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Everything.”

“And being aroused, you said it was happening when you weren't around women, weren't thinking about them. I know you have perfect recall, Alec, so I want you to cast your mind back, remember who you were with, or thinking about. I think that might shed some light on things.”

Alec did as he asked, replayed everything over in his head in precise detail, just as he would a mission evaluation, drawing conclusions and...

“You!” He met Jared's eyes. “I-I like you.”

Jared smiled at him. “I like you too.”

“No,” Alec shook his head. “You don't understand. I like you a _lot_. Like as in want to have sex with you.”

“I know.”

“You _know_ , how can you know?”

“Because I want to have sex with you too. I have done since the first moment I saw you.”

“But we're men, both of us.”

Jared bit at his bottom lip. “I'm gay, Alec; sexually attracted to my own sex. And you, if the last few days are anything to go by, are bisexual, attracted to both sexes.”

“I know what the words mean, it just never...” They hadn't given them much of a sex education at Manticore, it wasn't necessary, and when it was they were given the relevant facts, nothing more. “I guess I am, and you knew. How did you know?”

“The way you reacted to me made it pretty obvious.”

“To everyone?” Was that why Logan was looking at him like _he_ knew something Alec didn't?

“To everyone except you and probably Max.”

“Hmph.”

“So, do you still think you want to have sex with me?” Jared asked him.

“Does it feel good?”

“Very good.”

“So are we gonna, uh..?”

Jared surged to his feet, grabbing Alec's jacket to pull him up too. One of those hands that Alec liked so much moved to cradle his head while the other wrapped around his jaw tilting his head up and back. Then Jared's wide, beautiful mouth descended on his, asking for entrance with a lazy lick of his tongue. It was different to kissing a girl; the hint of stubble felt odd against his skin. The forceful way Jared held him, kissed him - Alec liked it, a lot. He was disappointed when Jared broke the kiss, pulling back to look at him.

“Bedroom,” he panted.

“You're short of breath,” Alec observed.

Jared grinned. “And you're hot.”

“So you keep telling me.” Alec smiled back.

“I was just waiting for you to catch on.”

They left a trail of clothes behind them in their eagerness to get to the bedroom. Naked in the lamp-lit bedroom, Jared was so perfect Alec was tempted to look for a barcode.

“Guess I was wrong,” he told him.

“Wrong about what?” Jared asked.

“There's nothing wrong with me.”

“Never thought there was.”

Alec gasped, arching off the bed, as the lube coated fingers Jared had slowly eased inside of him rubbed over something...

“Feel good?” Alec could hear the satisfied smile in the other man's voice.

“Again!”

Jared chuckled. “I'll take that as a yes. That little bundle of nerves is your prostate.”

Alec writhed on the bed as those clever fingers moved over that spot again before starting to withdraw.

“Wait! No, don't stop, Jared. _Please_!”

That earned him another of those deep, sexy chuckles as he kissed his way slowly across Alec's abdomen.. “I think you're ready for more.”

“There's more?”

“ _Oh_ yeah.”

Jared moved closer, lifting one of Alec's legs to rest on his shoulder, the other around his waist. He leant forward for a kiss before placing his slicked cock at Alec's entrance.

“Gonna go slow. You need to tell me how it feels, Alec, okay?”

“Okay.”

It wasn't like anything Alec had ever felt before. It was strange at first, not uncomfortable exactly but not great either. Jared kept going, slowly sheathing himself in Alec's body, and Alec decided he liked it, that feeling of fullness it gave him. He liked it even more when Jared began to move, adjusting his angle until...

“ _Fuck_!” That spot again, his prostate.

“Better?”

“I know a hundred ways to kill you if you stop.”

Jared grinned down at him. “Not gonna stop, gonna do this instead.”

A large hand wrapped around his cock, started to jack him in counterpoint to the steady thrusts and Alec couldn't keep quiet.

“Jared, I want... _Please_.”

“What do you want?”

“More!” He wanted more Jared, his hands, those eyes, his cock.

Jared came with a loud yell, continuing to stroke Alec to completion before he collapsed on top of him. His long hair dripped with sweat as he crawled up Alec's body to capture his mouth for a sloppy kiss before slumping down beside him.

He smiled, patting Alec on the shoulder. “You're really fucking loud.”

“I told you, I like having sex.”

The smile broadened. “I noticed.”

Alec rolled onto his side, propping his head on his arm to look down at Jared. “I want to do it again, see what it feels like to be inside of you. Can I?”

Jared stroked a lazy hand over Alec's cheek. “Sure.”

“Cool.” Alec grinned and sat up, looking around the bed. “Where did you put the lube stuff?”

“What?” Jared's eyes widened. “When you said do it again I didn't realise you meant right _now_.” He lifted his head up so he could get a better look at Alec. “You're hard again, already?”

“I'm transgenic, I don't have a refractory time.”

Jared lay with his head resting on Alec's shoulder, his long limbs wrapped possessively around him. Fucking him had been as much fun as being on the receiving end; Alec couldn't decide which he preferred. This was another first for him; lying here, watching someone sleep. Transgenics didn't need a lot of sleep. Normally, he would have left his human bedmate, uncomfortable at the thought of this kind of contact, but not tonight. He felt oddly content just to lie there and watch Jared as he slept, committing him to memory.

He eventually extricated himself from Jared's possessive arms when he got hungry, padding on silent feet through the apartment to see what he could scrounge up to eat in Logan's kitchen.

He was only a little surprised to find Logan sat at his computer.

“You still up?” It was a redundant question but he asked it anyway.

“Well I did try going to bed, but after a couple of hours of ' _Please, Jared! Oh god, please, Alec!_ ' I decided to give it up,” he turned to face Alec, “Find a distrac... Oh _god_ , please, Alec!”

“See it has a certain ring to it, even when _you_ say it.”

“Alec, please, will you put some damn clothes on?”

“ _Oh_ , yeah. How was I to know you'd be up this late?” He glanced around the floor, located his jeans and slipped them on.

“So, you and Jared...” Logan began.

“Had lots of sex, yeah.”

“Like each other,” Logan finished.

Alec nodded. “You knew that I liked him before I did.”

Logan smiled. “I could see it in the way you reacted to him.” He gave Alec one of those pointed looks of his. “Jared's a good man.”

“I'd worked that out for myself.”

“He may be young but he's something of a prodigy, a highly respected doctor with a great future ahead of him.”

“Are you telling me to back off?” Alec asked him.

Logan's gaze never left his as he spoke. “Max doesn't know this, but I never mentioned the virus to Jared, even though I knew that if it were possible for anyone to find an antidote it would be him. Jared found out by chance through a third party, a name I'd been given who turned out to be a colleague of his.” He sighed. “I didn't tell Jared because...”

“You wanted him kept out of all this.”

“He's my friend.”

“But he's not allowed to be mine. Is that it?”

“If you care about him at all...”

“I'll do the right thing?” Alec shook his head. He knew Logan meant well, knew that in a way he was right. When he met the man's eyes again his mask of a smile was firmly in place. “I _had_ a friend once, someone I liked the way I like Jared. I wanted to protect her so I did the right thing by her. She died anyway.”

“You're talking about Rachel Berrisford.”

“I'm talking about fate, Logan, grabbing onto happiness when you can. I hope Jared can find an antidote to the virus so that you and Max can get together, but what if he can't? Think of all that time you and Max wasted while you were busy doing the right thing by each other.” He turned away, his appetite gone. “No one knows how much time they've got, what's gonna happen down the line,” he threw back. “I like Jared, I'm pretty sure he likes me. Don't know where that's going but I plan to find out.”

He locked eyes with Jared who was leant in the hall doorway, naked and perfect.

“You knew I was here?”

Alec nodded. “You're too big to be stealthy.” he pointed out the obvious, “Besides, _transgenic_. You coming back to bed?”

“In a minute or two. I need to speak to Logan.” He walked over to Alec, framing his face with those big hands of his before kissing him long and hard. “Don't fall asleep.”

“Not gonna happen. You might wanna find some pants.”

“I got the impression you liked me naked.”

“Doesn't mean I want anyone else seeing you that way.”

“Possessive,” Jared growled, his voice low and full of promises. “I like that.”

According to Alec's internal clock it was a little over thirty seven minutes when Jared returned to the bedroom. He'd heard them talking, heard voices raised, mainly Jared's, but he hadn't allowed himself to listen to the words.

Jared slipped back into bed, his smile broad as he leaned in for a kiss.

“You and Logan okay?” Alec asked.

“We're good. We just had to clear the air between us.”

“And are we okay?” He kept any trace of the uncertainty he was feeling out of his voice.

Jared nodded before licking a slow stripe up Alec's neck, stopping just below his ear. “Finding a cure for this virus isn't going to be easy,” he whispered. “It could take me a while. So I was thinking... I don't want to lose you, Alec, but I don't want to push you into something you're not ready for either. So I think we should leave it...”

“Leave it?” It wasn't what Alec had been expecting, wasn't what he wanted, but he could handle it, put his game face on and...

Jared's hands cupped his face recapturing his attention. “...To fate and attraction. ”

Alec was confused. “So what are you saying?”

“I'm saying I like you, a lot, so we should take things one day at a time and see what happens.”

Alec pulled Jared down into a slow, deep kiss. He didn't know what was waiting for him around the corner, not with the likes of Ames White out there, hunting them down, but each day out of Manticore, each day he was free, had to be counted as a good day.

“Fate and attraction,” he considered. “Sounds good to me.”

~The End.~


End file.
